Top ten underrated sf movies (I said I was in a posty mood!)

[sqbr]

Ten Truly Underrated Sci-Fi Movies via linkmachinego. Don't forget the follow up post at the bottom.

Those I've seen, all worth watching if you like sf:
Primer: Best movie time travel ever
Tron: Absolutely classic, also has amusing-in-retrospect Sheridan & Londo scene :)
Existenz: Kind of crap, imo, but still really interesting
Gattacca: Awesome, like Primer actually takes it's material seriously
Dark City: Really interesting and effective style, even if it didn't make sense in parts. Borderline fantasy.
Cypher: I found this a bit shallow under it's cleverness, and very much reminiscent of a book I read in primary school (I won't say which for spoiler reasons)
The Quiet Earth: Saw this at Swancon, very strange and slow but unique and interesting. Are there any other NZ sf films?

I've read the story of "A boy and his dog" and it was effectively creepy, don't think I'd like the film.

Added to Quickflix queue: "Enemy Mine", "Silent Running" and "Strange days".

You HAVE to watch the trailer for "Enemy Mine". I can see why it's considered one of the slashiest canons ever "Hatred..turns to love tolerance. Tolerance..turns to love friendship. Friendship..turns to love."

Also, I don't care what they say, it may be cheesy and shallow but I liked Equilibrium :P

Comments

[nephron.livejournal.com]

Are there any other NZ sf films?

Bad Taste (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0092610/)?

[alias_sqbr]

Heh. Good point :)

[seaya.livejournal.com]

Braindead also. Early Peter Jackson, mainly :).

[alias_sqbr]

I never think of zombies as sf but I guess they kind of are. In that case I guess you can also count Black Sheep :)

[greteldragon.livejournal.com]

I really really liked eXistenZ. Or at least I did when I was 16 and going through the video store in manji. (I did buy the movie but I'm not brave enough to watch it with Chris around. Apparently he likes his stories well told, I just like insane and awesome ideas).

[distantcam.livejournal.com]

*pfft* "well told". His standards are too high :P

[ataxi.livejournal.com]

The sucky thing about eXistenZ's plot was that it became quite obvious that the denouement would involve "reality not really being real", and equally obvious that this wouldn't just occur once, but several times in time-honoured Hollywood multi-twist fashion. The writers needed to find a twist that was a bit more transverse to the conceptual thrust of the film, something genuinely unexpected.

Other than that, I liked it.

[distantcam.livejournal.com]

I think it also didn't help coming out right after the Matrix, which explored similar ideas about reality/non-reality but was way cooler.

[ataxi.livejournal.com]

The first Matrix movie was incredibly cool, but its ending was even worse than eXistenZ's (and you could argue that it signalled that the whole franchise would head downhill from there).

One SF trope that really annoys me is the religion/metaphysical-realm/irrational being wheeled in, deus ex, to blow up a tower of carefully established, inevitable plot logic. The last X-Files episode was the same ...

[alias_sqbr]

Yes, the "twist" lost it's shock value after the second or third time.

[greteldragon.livejournal.com]

Well, in all fairness my priorities are usually cool ideas and then hot guys.

Somehow he doesn't see the appeal of sacrificing plot and welltoldness for incredibly attractive guys, especially ones that will take their shirts off.

[alias_sqbr]

I can certainly see why someone would like it, and I'm certainly glad I watched it. It's all very subjective really, much as we sf fans like to pretend that anyone who doesn't appreciate our favourite film's genius is an ignorant plebe with no soul :)

It's not always the contents that stops them from being left off lists

[infamyanonymous.livejournal.com]

I don't know what it is, but for some reason films made between ~1955 and ~1985, I find really hard to watch. Something about the sound quality, maybe.
Anyway, that's what does old sci-fi in for me. It draaaaaaags like all the good editors got drafted. Tron = good example of this. Same trap befell Logan's Run.
(NB Star Wars escaped, but had remnants of the bodgey dialogue.)

Re: It's not always the contents that stops them from being left off lists

[alias_sqbr]

Possibly because I'm a bit older than you (and thus grew up with them) I tend to be ok with 80s films but do often find films from the 50s-70s unwatchable, especially dramas. I was So Bored by the original Manchurian Candidate.

[seaya.livejournal.com]

Strange Days was awesome.

[alias_sqbr]

I meant to watch it at the time, then somehow didn't. Well, I'm only 13 years late :) (Good god, it's 13 years since 1995...)

[leecetheartist.livejournal.com]

The Navigator. (Not the Flight of the Navigator which is the light and fluffy kid's flick)
Another one of the classic school of the New Zealand theatre of disquiet and disturbed.

Another under-watched movie is the Australian film "As Time Goes By". It's science fiction with Max Gillies portraying a very cool alien who has learned to speak English from radio and tv broadcasts. It has a wonderful soundtrack.

And classic quotes.

Irritated friend:"Sheryl!"
Zoned out hippy type "Hmmm---mm?"
Irritated friend "Ya foot's on fire!" (it is.)
Zoned out hippy type: "Ooh." *pause* "Which one?"

and

Three friends are driving along, in Beyond the Black stump territory:


Sheryll: "Have we reached the inland sea yet?!"
Irritated friend, driving "There hasn't BEEN an inland sea for 20000 years!"
Main character, rotating map. "Huh! Must be an old map!"


It really is a classic, and if you've ever spent any time in country towns in the outback, you'll find it doubly amusing.

[alias_sqbr]

Oh, I've heard of "The Navigator", good point.

Did you see the Woody Allen sf movie they had the trailer for? It's funny the stuff that's out there.

[ataxi.livejournal.com]

The Navigator is a really moving film, and also has one of the greatest shots I can think of in any movie, of a burning torch spinning end over end into a bottomless void. As a story it's a terrific fantasy.

[tommmo.livejournal.com]

While I totally acknowledge that it's a flawed film, I absolutely LOVE Dark City. It's one of my all-time favourites, stylistically beautiful and utterly engaging (and the first 20 minutes or so in particular are downright thrilling).

I'm a big fan of Cypher for all but the last 5 minutes, at which point it all goes a bit strangely Hollywood. And I'm not talking about the specifics of the plot-twist, I just mean the change in how the film is presented. It seems like this small, subtle movie suddendly gear-shifts into big, dumb widescreen. It doesn't fit. At any rate, it was a hell of a lot better than Cube.

[alias_sqbr]

I quite liked Dark City, but it didn't grab me quite enough for me to overlook it's flaws.

Cube was interesting, but Cypher was definitely more enjoyable as a film. And yes, the end was a bit incongruous.

[tommmo.livejournal.com]

Cube was a great idea for a 20 minute short film that became incredibly tedious at feature-length.

[alias_sqbr]

Yeah, pretty much (I mean I think I enjoyed it more than you, but at the end was still like "was that it?")